


When the Levee Breaks

by NewEyes



Category: The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, ColdFlash Week - Day 6, M/M, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 14:01:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4831697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NewEyes/pseuds/NewEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry was so angry. He twisted his hands and then... snap. Thawne was dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When the Levee Breaks

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, there's some stuff in this fic that gets a little dark so if you have any triggers please check the endnotes before reading.
> 
> This universe is mostly TV!verse except that everyone knows Barry is the Flash, and there are a few other minor changes.

Barry was so angry. He twisted his hands and then... snap. Thawne was dead.

*

"Breaking news: earlier today the Flash was engaged in a battle with his arch nemesis, the Reverse Flash. Mr Allen had defeated his opponent, and usually this is when he drops his enemy off at the police station for them undergo trial and sentencing. However today, in a surprise move, Mr Allen murdered Mr Thawne in cold blood and snapped his neck. There is now a standing warrant out for the arrest of Barry Allen, the Flash. What follows is mobile footage from a citizen watching the fight. Warning: this video contains disturbing content."

Barry turned away from the TV in the shop window, pulled his hood up and started walking again. The sky above him was grey, as if the weather had sensed his mood. He didn't know what to do. He walked in a daze, going nowhere in particular, just putting one foot in front of another. His head felt foggy, and he thought he might be in some kind of shock. If only he hadn't run maybe things could have been worked out with the police, he wished he could go back and have a do over . But he'd learnt his lesson earlier in the year, no changing the past. There was too much risk. It was one moment. One moment and his life had fallen apart, it was hard to believe life could change so much with one mistake.

He watched the other people on the street carefully. Most people didn't even give him a second glance but Barry could feel paranoia creeping in every time somebody stared at him for slightly longer than usual. He quickened his step. He just had a strange feeling, somebody was watching him. At that moment a figure moved alongside him and then started walking at the same pace. Barry looked over.

"Snart?"

"That's my name. I wondered if you wanted to go somewhere and we could have a talk."

"A talk." Barry was suspicious. "How did you know where I was?"

"The day I don't know where you are in the city is the day that I am truly slipping. And yes. Talk, somewhere private, we have a few things to discuss."

"We do?"

"You're a fugitive now, just like me." Barry frowned and shook his head.

"No."

"Just a talk. You're new to this. You have no idea what you're doing. At least listen to my proposal." Snart looked confident Barry would accept. It was true. Barry didn't know what he was doing, he felt as though he was walking on thin ice and if he made the wrong move his next step could send him plunging down into dark waters. Barry sighed, and then scooped Cold into his arms and flashed away.  

*

"Ah. These woods seem vaguely familiar," Snart said.

"Somewhere private. I can't exactly go home."

"That is true."

"I know there are people who might help me, even as a fugitive, but I want to keep them safe and out of this. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I have a proposition. You're a fugitive, I'm a fugitive, all of my rogues are fugitives. I was wondering if you wanted to join us."

"Join you!" Barry was angry. "I would never join you."

"Why not? We don't kill people, we don't harm innocents. With you on our side, there would be no jewels in the world that would be out of reach."

"It's still stealing! It's wrong." Barry shook his head sharply and took a step back.

"Come on kid. We don't steal from ordinary folk, just big ticket items, the billionaires that own them don't even miss them."

"Oh right. You're a regular Robin Hood then." Barry sneered.

"Oh no. We keep the money we make," Len grinned. "We're not the good guys. But we try and do things with a minimum of collateral damage. What do you say?"

"No. I'm not doing it. I'm not like you."

"Barry, you killed a man in cold blood. He was your enemy and he had done terrible things and you decided he deserved to die. So you snapped his neck rather violently and got caught on camera. You have that darkness in you. You used to keep many of my rogues in small boxes underground, with only a few moments of human interaction a day. You knew that going back in time could create a wormhole and destroy the world, taking seven billion people with it. But you did it anyway. You're one of us."

"No. No, I'm not like that. A few months and everything will be back to normal. It will. Everybody will forget about this" Barry felt jittery, he wanted to run, run far away from Cold and his offer.

"Well, take my card anyway Flash." Snart reached into his pocket and drew out a business card. He flicked it over and Barry caught it.

"You have business cards?" Barry wondered. It was just a number, the rest of the card was blank.

"Give me a call when you change your mind," Cold said. "And if you get any other offers, remember who asked you first."

*

_1 Week Later_

"Breaking news: a robbery is currently in progress at 43rd and 7th...." And Barry was away. Just because things had spun out of his control recently didn't mean he was going to stop doing good things for the city. He would restore their trust in him, he thought, as he flashed to the location. But without Caitlin and Cisco giving him advanced warning, he was too late. The cops were already there, leading the robbers away to the police cars.

The media were also there, interviewing the victims, the police, anybody they could get their hands on. When they saw him flash in, they all looked towards him.

"Flash!"

"Barry!"

"Mr Allen!"

"Barry!"

Light bulbs went off, blinding him, and they swarmed across the street to try and get close to him.

"How does it feel to be a murderer?"

"How many people have you killed?"

"Were you involved with the robbery tonight?"

"Are you involved with any criminal elements in the city?"

"How do you feel about the petition to get your statue taken down?"

"What do you think your mother would say if she was alive to see you like this?"

Barry felt his lip tremble. His hands were shaking, and he didn't know if he wanted to punch somebody, everybody, the whole world. Or break down, curl into a ball and cry.

"I...I..." He shook his head. He couldn't do this. He flashed away.

*

_1 Week Later_

"It's you, isn't it?"

"Hello?" Barry looked hard at the man, but he didn't recognise him.

"Just....come..." the man said and guided Barry into an nearby alley. Once they were out of sight, the man faced Barry.

"It really is you," the man stuttered, and to Barry's shock, he had tears in his eyes.

"What's going on, who are you?"

"Jason...I used to be the president of your fan club."

"Oh." Barry couldn't meet his eyes.

"You're the Flash, right?" Jason was still crying. Barry nodded.

"What's wrong?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Jason's face twisted in anger.

"You!" he yelled. There was a pause, and the Jason put his face in his hands. When he spoke again it was a quiet tone. "I'm sorry for yelling. But you have to understand, you were my hero. You were everything. You were supposed.... to be this perfect guy, not like the Arrow, not like Batman. You saved people. Even people who didn't deserve it, psychopaths, criminals, people who did bad things for good reasons, people who were mentally ill. You saved everybody, were kind to everybody. The perfect person for kids to look up to."

"I'm sorry." Jason's face was red and blotchy.

"I know. But, you made me believe, I mean, there's so much darkness in this world, I know, but you made me believe that light, hope, they were truly possible. My son, he-, his name is Barry."

"I'm not perfect, I never wanted to make anyone think that."

"I know. But you did anyway. Don't worry, I won't turn you in or anything."

"Thank you. You know I-, I just snapped. I never meant to disappoint anybody."

"I know." Jason looked at him sadly.

Barry flashed away.

*

_1 Week Later_

After the incident at the bank he avoided interceding in any criminal activities. The city hated him, it didn't want him, didn't need him. The cops were bouncing back fast, crime rates were higher but not as high as he'd feared .

But then there was the fire. A tower block was on fire, five people trapped on the upper floors. He couldn't just stand by and do nothing. But he learnt from his mistake last time, he avoided the press and the other fire fighters outside. He flashed in and out saving people, it felt good. This was okay, he could do this, even if he didn't have the city's trust he could still help people. Then there was one person left, a young girl. She was trapped behind a fallen beam so he slipped back into normal speed and tried to figure out a way around.

"Help me!" the girl screamed.

"It's okay. I'm the Flash. I'm here to help," Barry yelled back.

"No! " the girl cried, sounding terrified.

"It's alright. I'll get you out of here safely."

"No!! I don't want to die. Please! Don't kill me!" the girl started whimpering. Barry figured a way around the barrier and flashed over to pick the girl up. The young girl appeared frozen when Barry was at super speed, and as he sped outside he couldn't take his eyes away from the girl's face and the look of terror. Barry felt his eyes sting with unshed tears as he ran. He put the girl down with the others he'd saved. Maybe it really was time to leave this sort of stuff behind.

*

He flashed back to the small bedsit he had been renting. The walls were bare, dark grey and unforgiving. The only furniture was the old mattress on the floor and there was a solitary small window with black bars across it. Barry sat down on the edge of the mattress and put his head in his hands. He cried in a way he'd never done before. This wasn't going to get fixed, he wasn't going to be able to go back to the Flash, the hero. On his way back to the bedsit he had passed the Flash statue. They were in the process of taking it down. It would be so easy to end it, to end everything. He set his hand vibrating and poised it over his heart. His breath was shaking, his heart was pounding and he was crying. He watched the second hand on the clock tick by, loudly.

Suddenly there was a loud banging on the door and he jumped. Who even knew he was here? Before he could get up there was a crash as the door was knocked down. Standing in the doorway was Leonard Snart. He was dressed in civilian clothing, he was panting and he looked flustered.

"What are you doing here?" Barry asked incredulously.

"Sorry to burst in on you like this Red," Snart said. He picked up the door and propped it against the frame.

"Why did you knock down my door?" Barry tried to subtly move his hands to brush away his tears. He saw Snart's eyes dart to his face briefly and then away again.

"Look, I always keep tabs on dangerous people in my city. I don't have superpowers, it's how I work. So I'm spying on you and I saw...well , the situation you were in. I was concerned. Thought I'd drop by and say hi."

Barry was so embarrassed, he felt his face heat. Cold had been watching him all this time. Oh God.

"Well, I'm fine, you can see that."

"Hmm, I don't think so kid." Cold moved from the doorway and sat down on this mattress. "I'm the last person to insist you talk about it. That would be pretty hypocritical of me. But I'm definitely not leaving you here alone tonight. Sorry about that." Snart took of his jacket and sat down on one side of the mattress. Barry looked down at his hands and then took a deep breath.

"I'll join your rogues," he said.

"Wonderful," Len drawled. "I think that's a good idea."

"It's not, I don't think. But I don't really have any choice, do I?" Len turned to look at him.

"No. You know, you're really not that different from any of us. You made a mistake, a violent one. And once you did that you couldn't go back, you can't change how people think of you. It's there forever in their head whenever they look at you. You passed the fork in the road a mile back and now you're stuck on this course, the only way to go is forward."

Barry looked over at Len.

"Is that what happened for you?" Barry was curious, but Len just tilted his head slightly and said nothing. "Anyway, thanks for staying I guess."

"Of course, Flash." Barry looked into Len's eyes and suddenly became aware of how close they were sitting. He felt his body react, and his eyes flicked down to Len's lips and back up again.

"Barry." Len's voice was almost a whisper. "You've had a rough day, are you sure..."

Barry leaned forward and kissed him. They started off slow, until Len raised his hands to cradle Barry's face. Their kisses turned heated. Every time he paused to take a breath, Barry felt himself get pulled back in, as if by an invisible magnet. Barry reached for the bottom of Len's t-shirt and looked up at Len for permission. Len was breathing fast and his lips were red, Barry felt a surge of possessiveness, knowing that he was the one who had caused it.

"Yes," Len breathed. "But we don't have to...if you don't want to..."

"I want to." Barry said and reached for the hem of the shirt.

*

Barry flashed into the building and grabbed the necklace. The piece was famous because the centre stone was one of the largest black garnets in the world. It was well protected and the rogues would never have been able to take it without him. The rest of staff had been distracted so there were only six guards left in the final chamber. Currently five of them were going for their guns and one was going for the phone attached to the wall. Barry went for them and it was over before they had even moved an inch. He paused for a moment and looked down at the guards who were lying unconscious on the floor. He was new at this, still not quite comfortable hurting people just doing their jobs. But Cold was right, he needed to move forward. He wondered if Len had struggled this much with violence in the beginning, or if it had just come naturally.

He flashed out of the building, back to where Cold was waiting with his bike.

"Got it?"

"Yep." Barry grinned, but he couldn't quite make the smile reach his eyes.

"Things certainly are easier to handle with you around." Cold started up the bike, and Barry started running alongside him as they made their escape.

"For now. I wouldn't be surprised if we draw some outside attention from the League soon, now that I've officially joined you. I bet they were waiting to see how everything eventually turned out, now that I've made my decision I'm sure they'll send somebody.

"Don't worry about it Flash. The rogues handled you well enough by ourselves, we'll handle whoever they send. Working together, Captain Cold and the Flash." Len had a fierce light in his eyes. "We'll be unstoppable."

*

_3 Months Earlier_

"And....that's it folks! The Flash statue is finally finished! And now we welcome the man himself, Barry Allen!"

Barry stepped up to the mike.

"Um, hi everybody. I guess I just want to say thank you, I know a lot of people put a lot of time into this."

"We love you Flash!" Somebody yelled from the crowd.

"Thanks." Barry grinned. "But the real heroes in this city are the ordinary everyday heroes, people who work tirelessly every day, day in, day out. Good people, trying to do the best with what they have. I hope when people see this statue they'll think of the everyday heroes in their lives, or maybe try to be one yourself. Any questions?"

"Mr Allen. First of all, on behalf of everyone, I just want to thank you for saving us all last year. My question is, do you intend to stay here in Central City permanently, protecting us from any future disaster?"

"Of course. I'll always be here protecting Central City." Barry smiled. " I couldn't imagine doing anything else."

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Barry seriously contemplates suicide. He gets interrupted, he doesn't actually get physically hurt and he's alive at the end of the fic.
> 
> My Tumblr is: http://xxxneweyesxxx.tumblr.com/


End file.
